Contractor Blues!

I haven’t posted in a while. Mostly it’s because I’ve been so busy working. Terrible problem…too much work!

As an independent developer, I depend on contract work to make an income. That means that I spend a lot of time working on other people’s stuff. Not that I’m complaining. I enjoy the work. It is challenging and still allows me to flex my creative muscles.

I’m currently in a lull where I only have one contract project (instead of three at once!).
That means I actually have time to do other things like blog and WORK ON MY OWN GAME!

The Contract Trap

I have read it in other people’s blogs and heard it on other people’s podcasts: Once you start taking on contract work then work on your own game will suffer! The truth is that you have to meet the milestones on your contracts (if you want to get paid) and you don’t have to meet the milestones on your own projects. So, my own game keeps sliding while other people’s games get done.

Don’t get me wrong…I love contract work because I love things like food and cars and having a roof over my head. Being able to do contract work means that I get to stay independent, make a living, and still do what I love which is program games.

Maintaining Balance

When I look back over the last several months I am struck wondering where all the time went. I think the most difficult part of being a self-funded Indie is trying to maintain the balance between making a living and working on my own game, which is the reason I decided to go Indie in the first place.
So, now that I have some time, I also have some time to re-group and re-evaluate. I’m getting ‘back in the game’ and ramping back up on development.

Keeping the Flame Burning

It’s easy to get discouraged. Over a year has gone by since I started my game project and I don’t feel like I have enough to show for it. I remember last year thinking that I wanted a playable demo done by the end of 2010. Now that is my goal for 2011!

However, I keep reminding myself that I’m in this for the long haul. Obviously, I have to survive and that means taking on contract work to have an income. So, I just remind myself that no matter how long it takes I will finish my game.

Connecting with People

It can be really easy to fall into the trap of never interacting with other people. After all, I work from my home and my development team is distributed and online. Weeks can go by without hearing another developer’s voice!

One thing that has really helped me is making it a point to regularly interact with other people involved in the project. My designer recently “forced” me to setup regular meetings so we can talk about the game. My initial choice was to work in isolation to ‘get some coding done’. The truth is that talking with others about the game always gets me more motivated to actually do some more work on it.

Isolation bad. People good.

Indie by Default - Part III

Moving forward

I am a great believer in the Bible, that is, the Game Design Document.  Although the urge as a programmer is to get coding as soon as possible, I know the benefit of a good design document from experience.  Without it, your ideas get fuzzy and you end up doing a lot of programming that is wasted on fleeting ideas.
So, my first step was to start creating a game document.  I found that completing the design document helped me turn my fuzzy ideas into a set of concrete specifications.

The accomplishment of getting that first page of the game design document inspired me. Now there was something concrete to show for my game idea. The more I wrote the more progress I saw.  This is another benefit of creating a design document first:  instant gratification.

Once I finished the game design document, I had a solid reference to use to begin programming. I’m the kind of programmer that tends to work in spurts.  One weekend a spurt happened and I created the first prototype for the game. 

The more I accomplished, the more I was invested, the more I was motivated.

Alternate reality

I don’t want to give you the idea that this has been easy and that I have achieved all of my goals. The reality of survival has side-tracked me several times.  It’s too easy to spend all of my time on projects that actually make money.

Being independent is the world’s most complex balancing act.  If you aren’t careful, you’ll find yourself back in the place where you are doing everyone else’s projects but not your own. Once you start down that path, it’s easy to get detoured from your game.  If you find yourself detoured, get back to the main road!
I’m not suggesting that anyone be irresponsible.  I understand that human nature (and sometimes survival) means going for the money first.  However, with discipline and planning, I have always been able to get the game project back on track while I survive.

Going public

One final word. Just last month I had another spurt and created a web page for my new studio. I immediately sent word to all of my friends, family, and colleagues to check it out.
Twitter. Facebook.  The whole deal.
Frankly, I was scared to death.
Going public meant that this was more than just a dream or idle fancy. Now everyone that is important to me knows that I am trying to make it as an indie.  Some of them probably think I’m crazy.  Others will understand and respect my decision. But the fact is, the word is out and I’m really not good at failure. Now, more than ever, I am motivated to succeed because, in a way, I am accountable to those who are rooting for my success.

If you’re unemployed and wondering what happened to your game development career, I hope this article inspires you to do something more.  Even if you already took that job programming for an accounting firm, you can still make a way to do what you love—make games.  Make your own game.
Independent by default. For me, it’s either this or boring.  I now work just as many hours as when I was employed, if not more. The sense of accomplishment and the satisfaction that I am still doing what I love more than compensates for the extra time.
3:00 A.M. Tired, crazy, happy!

Robert Madsen

Indie by Default - Part II

The new era of indie games

I remember a time about as eight years ago when I was first researching the game industry.  The general consensus at that time was that the days of the small “garage” team game developer was over. Games now cost millions of dollars to produce and thousands of man hours. Furthermore, specialization was the norm.  Not only were their designers, programmers and artists, but also specialists inside of each of those fields.  The conclusion: making a game on your own or with a few talented friends was no longer an option.

Fortunately, the indie game developers weren't listening.

Now, more than ever, the environment and technology are open and supportive to small, independent games. An abundance of tools have cropped up that target the small indie studio.  Torque, Unity, XNA, and PlayFirst are just a few examples of low cost or free game engines. Just as important are the avenues of distribution that have opened up. Services such as Steam, XBox Live Arcade, Kongregate, and many other services have come up that directly focus on smaller games. Finally, there are new platforms that make sense for the indie game including the PC, web, Facebook, iPhone, and Windows Mobile. The point is that the barriers of entry are now lower than ever.

I’m not saying that it’s easy. In fact, the competition is overwhelming on all of the promising platforms I named above.  But there is one thing to keep in mind:  Three years ago, few people took game development on the iPhone seriously.  Now it is one of the most prolific platforms for games.  The same is true of Facebook.  If these examples are indicative—and they seem to be—there is a huge market for the more “casual” games that indie studios are best at. 

Focus testing

No, I’m not talking about getting a bunch of kids in a room to play your next game. I’m talking about the need to focus or you’ll never get anything done! There are so many variables to consider when first starting an independent game that it can be overwhelming.

Once I had decided that I was going to get serious about making my own game, I was immediately lost in the details. What kind of game did I want to create? Which platform and language should I use? Should I use a game engine or should I just start from scratch? 

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Ultimately I used two criteria to make these choices: experience and resources.

I asked myself, “What programming platform do you have the most experience with?” Although I am fluent in C++, I also did a great deal of development in Visual Basic and C# in my previous business.  I had a lot of experience in .NET web development as well.  Knowing that anything done in C++ doubled or tripled development time, I decided to use on C#. I also decided to use the web because I could leverage my existing knowledge of ASP.Net development.  This would allow me to target the web as well as Facebook with my game.

I realize the C# and .NET aren’t the most common tools to use for game programming, but this leads to the second criteria: resources.  In the beginning, I knew the only resource that I had was me, so I chose the platform that would allow me to produce meaningful results in a reasonable amount of time.

I also knew that my greatest limitation was art. I am no artist! So, when it came to picking a game design, I chose a type of game that was not art intensive. I needed a game where even I could supply the art if needed, and hopefully I could get a real artist involved at some point in the future.

So, there’s my focus: a web based game--written in C# and ASP.Net--that doesn’t need a lot of art. Having this focus is what allowed me to move forward.  My advice:  moving forward is always better than not moving!

Indie by Default - Part I

It's been a while since my last post. Part of the reason is becuase life has been a little chaotic since then! Unfortunately, I was laid off from my previous studio, and since then I've been working at starting an independent studio. The way I see it, going indie is the only choice I have right now if I want to keep making games. In other words, it's Indie by Default!

This article was originally publised in the February 2011 issue of IGDA Perspectives. I will be reposing it here as a three part post so everyone can enjoy it!

In the computer world, default is the state of rest--that which occurs when nothing special is going on. It is the status quo. Over the last three years, it has been my experience that the default state of employment in the game industry is unemployment.

Since entering the game industry in 2008, I have had a wild ride. First, Dallas followed by lay off in less than a year…then a seven month job search…next Canada followed by layoff within a year…more job search. You get it. I’ve been unemployed about as much as I’ve been employed. Of course, I knew the game industry was infamous for such instability before I ever decided to point my career in that direction. I also realize that there are thousands of others from the game industry who have faced similar or worse situations over the last several years.

When life gives you lemons...

The first time I was laid off, my entire focus was on finding another job. Seven months and 300 resumes later, I found another job as a game programmer. Looking for a job was literally a full-time affair. Eleven months later I was laid off again.

After the second layoff, I decided to turn my disadvantage into opportunity. Given the current economy, I realized that finding another job would be a multi-month adventure. This time, I wanted to do more with that time than just look for the next job. I also wanted to continue working at what I love: making games. After all, that’s why I got into the industry!

Before I entered the game industry I had been self-employed. My longstanding joke was that a self-employed person is just an unemployed person with a business card. So here I was “self-employed” again. Since I already had some experience as an independent programmer, becoming an independent game developer seemed the next logical step.

I have to admit that having been self-employed for the last 15 made it a little easier. I had a lot of resources to fall back on such as previous clients and online avenues of revenue. Since I was already familiar with the ropes of being self-employed, I decided to spend about 50% of my time working for pay and the other 50% working on my game. Somewhere in there I would keep my eye out for promising jobs.

The opportunity of independence

Anyone who has been involved in making games for someone else has also thought of ideas for their own game. But there are real barriers to making your own games while you are employed for another game studio. Generally, as an employee, you must sign non-disclosure agreements and non-compete contracts that essentially block you from developing your own games. What’s theirs is theirs. What’s yours is also theirs. Being unemployed generally means that you are free of such agreements.

Another new resource you suddenly discover as an unemployed person is time. Now that you're not crunching 12 hours a day, what are you going to do with yourself? Catching up on the last three seasons of Lost will only take so much time! The key is to find a way to balance what is essential (such as making enough money to survive or looking for that next job) with what is desired (making games).

I realize that survival and looking for a job can be a full time effort of its own. However, with planning and discipline, you can make the time to keep making games.

Think about it: while you were working for the typical game studio you are already working 12 hours a day. Why stop now?

Being unemployed can be a great opportunity. First, there is a good chance that you are receiving some kind of short term support in terms of unemployment benefits. You may have the support of a spouse. If you were smart, you saved up some money while you were gainfully employed. Second, even if you spend a lot of time on the job search, you probably still have more discretionary time on your hands than when you were employed. Finally, you are probably free of any contractual limits on your ability to make your own games. You've dreamed of making your own game…now is your chance!

That's it for part 1. See you next week for part 2! R